Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network system technology, specifically a network system used to control home appliances, and to a communication method, a server, and a terminal.
Description of the Related Art
Network systems used to control home appliances are known. For example, JP-A-2009-225481 discloses a communication device, a communication control method, and a communication control program. This publication discloses an adaptor that connects an electrical device to an ECHONET network. The adaptor includes a device object storing section that stores the object configuration information of a connecting electrical device in advance, an object configuration checking section that checks whether the object configuration information stored in the device object storing section matches the object configuration information obtained from a connected electrical device, and a network entry processing section that communicatably connects the electrical device and the ECHONET network to each other if the object configuration checking section determined that the object configuration information matches.
There has been proposed a communication protocol called ECHONET Lite. ECHONET Lite encompasses a control protocol and a protocol for a sensor network for smart houses, and has been internationally certified under ISO and IEC standards. For example, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan certifies ECHONET Lite as a standard protocol for connecting a smart meter and an HEMS (Home Energy Management System).
However, sending of data from a home appliance to a server has the possibility of creating heavy traffic from the home appliance to the server, or overloading the server, when the data is sent directly to the server.